S. JOhnson

Jan. 25, 2016

(NaturalNews) We live in an age of pseudo-illness, from obesity to ADHD. These "diseases" are cooked up in the imaginations of doctors and psychiatrists who attach a label to any arbitrary list of symptoms. In the latest gambit of intellectual chutzpah, scientists at the University of Northern Colorado claim that people with a passion for nutrition may be suffering from a mental disorder.

The latest pseudo-disorder to take the academy by storm is called orthorexia nervosa (ON), which is characterized as "a pathologic obsession for bio-logically pure and healthy nutrition," says Ryan M. Moroze, MD. In other words, if you strive to maintain healthy eating habits, according to these loons, you just might have a problem.(1)

The researchers deduced the "disorder" from a case study on the obsession of eating healthy. The psychologists behind the study insist that eating healthy can turn against you if you insist to know where food comes from, how it is prepared and what goes into it. Symptoms include taking extra time to prepare food and setting guidelines about what you will and will not eat.(1)

The hell of being healthy

Any obsession has the potential to become dangerous. But where do the risks lie? Thomas Dunn, associate professor of psychology at the University of Northern Colorado, who co-authored the paper suggests:

Such draconian diets can lack essential nutrients, and they make the vitamins and minerals a person does get from meals of exclusively, say, leafy greens, impossible for the body to absorb. This can lead to fragile bones, hormonal shifts, and cardiac problems, along with psychological distress and entrenched, delusional thinking.(1)

Never mind the fact that more than 90 percent of the food system is littered with processed foods, which have been produced with lots of carbohydrates, sugars and trans fats, and little nutrients. Nor the fact that major diseases – real disease – that plague the United States are very much food-related, including heart disease, cancer and diabetes. According to food expert Michael Pollan, this is the first time in history when people can be both overweight and malnourished.(2)

In response to American's health epidemic, health professionals, doctors and Big Pharma have pumped out a steady stream of pills and medications to treat the diseases, both real and fictitious, that they created. In actuality, our primary source of medicine should come from food – not doctors.

Are you a certified health enthusiast?

How can you tell if you are "suffering" from orthorexia? Not to fear: Dr. Dunn has created an arbitrary list of symptoms. Other than the first symptom, if you identify with two or more of the following, congratulations! You qualify as a certified health enthusiast:

1. You consume a nutritionally unbalanced diet because of concerns about "food purity."

3. You rigidly avoid any food you deem to be "unhealthy," such as those containing fat, preservatives, additives or animal products.

4. You spend three or more hours per day reading about, acquiring or preparing certain kinds of food you believe to be "pure."

5. You feel guilty if you eat foods you believe to be "impure."

6. You're intolerant of other's food beliefs.

7. You spend an excessive proportion of your income on "pure" foods.

While everyone should be concerned about the purity, safety and healthiness of the foods they eat, it is important to always remember to eat a well balanced diet, which means incorporating a wide variety of different plant-based foods.

"Orthorexia has not yet found its way into the latest edition of the psychiatric bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), yet is commonly being lumped in with other eating disorders," notes investigative journalist Jeffery Jaxen.(1)

"Stepping back and looking at the ones pushing this label on us shows highly questionable motives. Psychiatry as a whole is deeply in bed with a pharmaceutical industry that makes the drugs to 'treat' every one of these 'disorders.' It is often these companies that are wielding influence behind the scenes to invent more mental health categories with their toxic products as the answer," he added.(1)